ALL CREATURES GREAT AND SMALL...ARE VERY UNHAPPY
Ge 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth.
27 And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.
28 And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth.
29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food:
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.
31 And God saw everything which he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
(BBE)
https://www.gotquestions.org/dominion-over-animals.html
The word dominion means “rule or power over.” God has sovereign power over His creation and has delegated the authority to mankind to have dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26). David reinforces this truth: “You made [mankind] rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet” (Psalm 8:6). Humanity was to "subdue" the earth (Genesis 1:28)—we were to hold a position of command over it; we were placed in a superior role and were to exercise control over the earth and its flora and fauna. Mankind was set up as the ruler of this world. All else was subjugated to him.
(Note: Humanity lost the power at the Fall. It also lost the definition of "dominion". We were to rule "As He rules". We are to be his servants in that rule. Dominion religion has us ruling "in his place." We always try to subjugate the Earth not develop and carefully manage the resources. Worse, Christians are led to believe that any efforts in that vein are some kind of Earth worship. Worse still, some of them actually are and they lend credence to the lie that all of them are. We have lost the notion of love for the Earth, for the animals, for each other, for all the creation of God. Read on. W)
God’s command to subdue the earth and the animal life in it is a command to have the mastery over all of it. A true mastery (of anything) cannot be accomplished without an understanding of the thing mastered. In order for a musician to master the violin, he or she must truly understand the instrument. In order for mankind to attain mastery over the animal kingdom, we must understand the animals.
With the authority to rule comes the responsibility to rule well. There is an inherent accountability in the command to subdue the earth. Man has a duty to exercise his dominion under the authority of the One who delegated it. All authority is of God (Romans 13:1-5), and He delegates it to whomever He will (Daniel 4:17). The word subdue doesn’t have to imply violence or mistreatment. It can mean “to bring under cultivation.”
Man is to be the steward of the earth; he is to bring the material world and all of its varied elements into the service of God and the good of mankind. The command to subdue the earth is actually part of God’s blessing on mankind. Created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were to use the earth’s vast resources in the service of both God and themselves. It would only make sense for God to decree this, since only humans were created in God’s image.
(Note: and rather than subdue by the power of God we subdue by the power of machine. The railway in the USA opened up to the rest of the country. The Buffalo Bill and other used it to slaughter the buffalo to take way the food source for the native tribes. That dominion thinking will power the Antichrist. We killed the Native Americans for gold in the Black hills, for land for our expansion everywhere else. We built a network of roads for cars the represented freedom and the roads are deteriorating asour leadership pretends there is nothing they can do, taking the image of freedom as a threat to their rule. Just as the image of free animals is a threat. W)
When God gave humanity dominion over the animals, it was in order to care for, tend to, and use those animals to their fullest potential in a just manner. At the time that God gave mankind dominion over the animals, humans did not eat meat (Genesis 1:29). Eating meat did not begin until after the Flood (Genesis 9:1–3), and it was at that time that animals started to fear humans. However, although God changed the way we interact with animals, in that they are now “meat,” we still bear a responsibility to treat animals humanely. Human rule over animals does not mean we have the right to mistreat or misuse those animals.
Having dominion over the animals should entail a humane management of them as the resource God has ordained them to be. We should consider that mankind was given the task (and blessing) of representing God in this world. We are the caretakers. We hold sway over all the earth, and we (bearing God’s image) bear a responsibility to act as God would. Does God misuse His creation? No. Is God unwise in His management of resources? No. Is God ever cruel or selfish or wasteful? No. Then neither should we be. Any misuse or mistreatment of God’s creation is the result of sin, not the result of following God’s original command. We must fulfill our duty to manage the earth wisely until that time when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb in the kingdom of Christ (Isaiah 11:6).
(Note: and perhaps we need to stop seeing Creation as a resource for our use and find ways to honor God in the way we treat all the things He has given us. Even as we are to care for money and time. But this is about the way it all goes even more monstrously wrong. W.)
Ge 2:18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him
19 And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he gave to any living thing, that was its name.
20 And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help.
(BBE)
Matthew Henry:
2:18-25 Power over the creatures was given to man, and as a proof of this he named them all. It also shows his insight into the works of God. But though he was lord of the creatures, yet nothing in this world was a help meet for man. From God are all our helpers. If we rest in God, he will work all for good. God caused deep sleep to fall on Adam; while he knows no sin, God will take care that he shall feel no pain. God, as her Father, brought the woman to the man, as his second self, and a help meet for him. That wife, who is of God's making by special grace, and of God's bringing by special providence, is likely to prove a help meet for a man. See what need there is, both of prudence and prayer in the choice of this relation, which is so near and so lasting. That had need to be well done, which is to be done for life. Our first parents needed no clothes for covering against cold or heat, for neither could hurt them: they needed none for ornament. Thus easy, thus happy, was man in his state of innocency. How good was God to him! How many favours did he load him with! How easy were the laws given to him! Yet man, being in honour, understood not his own interest, but soon became as the beasts that perish.
John Wesley:
And every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air God brought to Adam-Either by the ministry of angels, or by a special instinct that he might name them, and so might give a proof of his knowledge, the names he gave them being expressive of their inmost natures.
All that glory and then we end up degenerated to this:
Re 6:8 And I saw a grey horse, and the name of him who was seated on it was Death; and Hell came after him. And there was given to them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to put to destruction by the sword, and by taking away their food, and by death, and by the beasts of the earth.
(BBE)
We get to analyze exactly what that means.
First, that the beasts will be used against other men by the four horsemen. The AC may set up arenas even as Nero the antichrist precursor did in ancient Rome. He may use scent dogs to track down his enemies and use pit bulls to rip into prisoners, or unleash packs of animals to run down escapees.
Chuck Smith while preaching about this passage once mentioned the idea that the bacteria and viruses that cause so much sickness look like beasts when seen under a microscope. And certainly with all the deadly diseases available in various research labs, government and otherwise, any government could release any kind of "beast" to spread death.
Animals fear us. However, hunger can be used to drive them beyond their fear and search out any food, even the humans they once feared. Or through the animals in African savannas. through the huge spiders in Australia, Through crocs and gators. Boas and pythons. Rattlesnakes and black widows, tarantulas, brown recluses. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my." The polar bears driven from their hunting grounds in the Arctic. Hawks and falcons, Eagles and sparrows attacking in a Hitchcockian movie replay.
Disease can drive animals mad. Imagine a strain of rabies running through the packs who now have no one to vaccinate them against it. Running through animals escaped from untended zoos.
Then death itself could unleash all the animals against humanity. Imagine that cute little poodle in the rich lady's arms deciding to go for her throat. Or the cat lady with ten cats found dead with blood on the claws and teeth of her "babies." Or all those folks betting on dog fights suddenly turned on by the fighters.
All this because our earliest parents lost their hold on the Earth by falling. Not only the
Earth itself turning on us because of our mistreatment, but the animals as well, this time for any kind of treatment. No matter what one thinks of Patterson's ZOO book or miniseries, it may actually have borrowed an plot line from the Bible. The hunter becomes the hunted.
As we consider the ideas of what could and what will happen in the Tribulation a couple things that point even more toward it moving in arise.
Trump's recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capitol led to a rage in the Middle East. Islamic countries and Palestinians in their various places of refuge began a protest that will simply seem to cease but go n behind closed door.
Then Trump did this:
SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud al-Qouqa can't imagine life without the three sacks of flour, cooking oil and other staples he receives from the United Nations every three months.
Living with 25 relatives in a crowded home in this teeming Gaza Strip slum, the meager rations provided by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee families, are the last thing keeping his family afloat in the territory hard hit by years of poverty and conflict. But that could be in danger as the United States, UNRWA's biggest donor, threatens to curtail funding.
"It will be like a disaster and no one can predict what the reaction will be," al-Qouqa said.
Across the Middle East, millions of people who depend on UNRWA are bracing for the worst. The expected cut could also add instability to struggling host countries already coping with spillover from other regional crises.
UNRWA was established in the wake of the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel's creation. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting.
In the absence of a solution for these refugees, the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, the original refugee camps have turned into concrete slums and more than 5 million refugees and their descendants now rely on the agency for services including education, health care and food. The largest populations are in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as providing a valuable safety net, UNRWA is viewed far differently by Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote an unrealistic dream that these people have the "right of return" to long-lost properties in what is now Israel.
"UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution," he told foreign journalists last week. Noting that the Palestinians are the only group served by a specific refugee agency, he said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main U.N. refugee agency.
Some in Israel have even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza.
Blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts, President Donald Trump has threatened to cut American assistance to the Palestinians. UNRWA would be the first to be affected.
The U.S. provides about $355 million a year to UNRWA, roughly one-third of its budget.
U.S. officials in Washington said this week the administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the year's first contribution, cutting a planned $125 million installment by half or perhaps entirely. The decision could come as early as Tuesday.
Matthias Schmale, UNRWA's director in Gaza, said Washington has not informed the agency of any changes. However, "we are worried because of the statements ... in the media and the fact that the money hasn't arrived yet," he said.
Schmale dismissed the Israeli criticisms, saying that individuals who spread incitement or aid militants are isolated cases and promptly punished. And he said Netanyahu's criticism should be directed at the U.N. General Assembly, which sets UNRWA's mandate, not the agency itself.
Any cut in U.S. aid could ripple across the region with potentially unintended consequences.
Gaza may be the most challenging of all of UNRWA's operating areas. Two-thirds of Gaza's 2 million people qualify for services, and its role is amplified given the poor state of the economy, which has been hit hard by three wars with Israel and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power over a decade ago. Unemployment is 43 percent and the poverty rate is 38 percent, according to the official Palestinian statistics office.
(Please notice that the Palestinians have brought this on themselves by their constant demand to get Israel back now that it is a very valuable piece of property blessed by God because the Jews are there. Every country that has hosted them has seen misfortune and loss. Those aiding them now are part of predicted battle disaster. If they pursued peace with Israel instead of war, they would see their fortunes restored. Right now, that seems unlikely. W)
(But their pursuit of Israel's destruction has alienated Christian Evangelicals who regard Israel as a brother nation. Trump has been doing his best to please their political desires even as his life has ignored all the legal things they cling to W.)
"Nowhere else are we the biggest service provider for the population of the entire territory," Schmale said. He said UNRWA provides food assistance to 1 million Gazans, calling it "an expression of collective shame for the international community."
With more than 12,500 teachers, nurses and other staff, UNRWA is Gaza's largest non-governmental employer. It is also involved in postwar reconstruction projects.
The dire situation in Gaza is evident inside al-Qouqa's home, which is so cramped the family has made sleeping spaces with wood boards and fabric. Two male family members are unemployed. Two others are Hamas civil servants and get paid only intermittently by the cash-strapped movement.
At 72, al-Qouqa is worried about his grandchildren. "If UNRWA provides them with bread, they can remain patient. But if it was cut, what will they become? They will become thieves, criminals and a burden on society," he said. Many believe Hamas, which administers schools and social services in Gaza, will step in to fill the void.
Jordan, a crucial ally in the U.S.-led battle against Islamic militants, is home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants — with nearly 2.2 million people eligible for UNRWA services. This has turned the U.N. agency into a major contributor to social welfare services in the country, which also hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by war.
U.S. aid cuts could heighten the threat of instability in Jordan, which is grappling with a worsening economy hurt by the spillover from conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq. More than one-third of Jordan's young people are without jobs, turning them into potential targets for recruitment by extremists.
(Please recall that refuge from the 1948 accord were given land IN Transjordan. W.)
Most of the Palestinians eligible for UNRWA services in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship, and some argue that this has ended their refugee status. But most maintain that UNRWA services are vital to propping up an important ally.
UNRWA's services are also vital in Lebanon, where Palestinians are prohibited from working in skilled professions and owning property.
Lebanon is the least-welcoming Arab country to Palestinian refugees, because it does not want Palestinians to settle and because it does not want the refugees to upset the country's delicate sectarian balance. Camps in several cities are ringed by concrete barriers and Lebanese security forces use checkpoints to control who enters and leaves. A recent census found 175,000 Palestinian refugees or their descendants living in the country.
The civil war in Syria has made many Palestinians refugees twice over. Some 32,000 Palestinians who were living in Syria fled to Lebanon, according to UNRWA. In Syria, Palestinians enjoyed the right to own property and to work in all professions. They are not entitled to the same in Lebanon.
Balkees Hameed, 33, arrived in 2013 with her husband, two children and in-laws from Damascus, where their apartment was damaged by rocket fire. The family depends on UNRWA assistance to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a ramshackle building in Bourj al-Barajneh, a Beirut camp. Her husband wipes tables at a restaurant outside the camp. Hameed, like all Palestinians, was painfully aware of the rumors coming out of Washington.
"We are already defeated and now they want to oppress us some more?" she asked.
While more than 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide are entitled to assistance from the U.N.'s general refugee relief agency, Palestinians are barred from it under the logic that UNRWA serves them. But UNRWA in Lebanon is chronically underfunded, and the wave of Palestinians arriving from Syria has strained its finances even further.
"What UNRWA provides is not even a quarter of what a Palestinian refugee needs," said Ramy Mansour, 34, who fled to Lebanon from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus in 2013. "Take everything and return us to our homes. We don't want any assistance or anything, just return us to our country."
(It should be noted that the young man above was never a citizen of Palestine since it ceased to exist long before his birth. His demand seems somewhat hollow when that is considered. W.)
___
Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.
But reread the verses above. Wrapped in there are a couple little notes on the reality of our life. Death and Hell have personifications. And THEY are given the power to kill a fourth of the Earth's people. A quarter of those living.
Roughly 7.5 billion alive today. Almost 1.9 billion. Just by them.
The ice age. The nuclear events. Seem like just the start. ARE just the start.
Oddly, God doesn't give us a lot of detail about even the battles of the Apocalypse. Well, odd to us. The man He placed in power to do the work of bringing more people to Christ (Yes, that IS what the AC s there for. Even what Trump and Putin are there for.) will be about the business of bringing Death to the world in his battles and behind that Hell will arrive. The Hell will be as so many have pictured it: people seemingly cut off from the mercy of God and subject to all manner of dying, suffering, torture. When the Church has gone, the new Church will emerge, for those who have found the end as a deep view into their souls.
The Bible concerns itself with that list of curses and with modest detail on the battles.
But let's pursue both in the following posts, but first with the Godly concerns of witnesses.
Ge 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, like us: and let him have rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every living thing which goes flat on the earth.
27 And God made man in his image, in the image of God he made him: male and female he made them.
28 And God gave them his blessing and said to them, Be fertile and have increase, and make the earth full and be masters of it; be rulers over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing moving on the earth.
29 And God said, See, I have given you every plant producing seed, on the face of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit producing seed: they will be for your food:
30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the air and every living thing moving on the face of the earth I have given every green plant for food: and it was so.
31 And God saw everything which he had made and it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
(BBE)
https://www.gotquestions.org/dominion-over-animals.html
The word dominion means “rule or power over.” God has sovereign power over His creation and has delegated the authority to mankind to have dominion over the animals (Genesis 1:26). David reinforces this truth: “You made [mankind] rulers over the works of your hands; you put everything under their feet” (Psalm 8:6). Humanity was to "subdue" the earth (Genesis 1:28)—we were to hold a position of command over it; we were placed in a superior role and were to exercise control over the earth and its flora and fauna. Mankind was set up as the ruler of this world. All else was subjugated to him.
(Note: Humanity lost the power at the Fall. It also lost the definition of "dominion". We were to rule "As He rules". We are to be his servants in that rule. Dominion religion has us ruling "in his place." We always try to subjugate the Earth not develop and carefully manage the resources. Worse, Christians are led to believe that any efforts in that vein are some kind of Earth worship. Worse still, some of them actually are and they lend credence to the lie that all of them are. We have lost the notion of love for the Earth, for the animals, for each other, for all the creation of God. Read on. W)
God’s command to subdue the earth and the animal life in it is a command to have the mastery over all of it. A true mastery (of anything) cannot be accomplished without an understanding of the thing mastered. In order for a musician to master the violin, he or she must truly understand the instrument. In order for mankind to attain mastery over the animal kingdom, we must understand the animals.
With the authority to rule comes the responsibility to rule well. There is an inherent accountability in the command to subdue the earth. Man has a duty to exercise his dominion under the authority of the One who delegated it. All authority is of God (Romans 13:1-5), and He delegates it to whomever He will (Daniel 4:17). The word subdue doesn’t have to imply violence or mistreatment. It can mean “to bring under cultivation.”
Man is to be the steward of the earth; he is to bring the material world and all of its varied elements into the service of God and the good of mankind. The command to subdue the earth is actually part of God’s blessing on mankind. Created in the image of God, Adam and Eve were to use the earth’s vast resources in the service of both God and themselves. It would only make sense for God to decree this, since only humans were created in God’s image.
(Note: and rather than subdue by the power of God we subdue by the power of machine. The railway in the USA opened up to the rest of the country. The Buffalo Bill and other used it to slaughter the buffalo to take way the food source for the native tribes. That dominion thinking will power the Antichrist. We killed the Native Americans for gold in the Black hills, for land for our expansion everywhere else. We built a network of roads for cars the represented freedom and the roads are deteriorating asour leadership pretends there is nothing they can do, taking the image of freedom as a threat to their rule. Just as the image of free animals is a threat. W)
When God gave humanity dominion over the animals, it was in order to care for, tend to, and use those animals to their fullest potential in a just manner. At the time that God gave mankind dominion over the animals, humans did not eat meat (Genesis 1:29). Eating meat did not begin until after the Flood (Genesis 9:1–3), and it was at that time that animals started to fear humans. However, although God changed the way we interact with animals, in that they are now “meat,” we still bear a responsibility to treat animals humanely. Human rule over animals does not mean we have the right to mistreat or misuse those animals.
Having dominion over the animals should entail a humane management of them as the resource God has ordained them to be. We should consider that mankind was given the task (and blessing) of representing God in this world. We are the caretakers. We hold sway over all the earth, and we (bearing God’s image) bear a responsibility to act as God would. Does God misuse His creation? No. Is God unwise in His management of resources? No. Is God ever cruel or selfish or wasteful? No. Then neither should we be. Any misuse or mistreatment of God’s creation is the result of sin, not the result of following God’s original command. We must fulfill our duty to manage the earth wisely until that time when the wolf shall lie down with the lamb in the kingdom of Christ (Isaiah 11:6).
(Note: and perhaps we need to stop seeing Creation as a resource for our use and find ways to honor God in the way we treat all the things He has given us. Even as we are to care for money and time. But this is about the way it all goes even more monstrously wrong. W.)
Ge 2:18 And the Lord God said, It is not good for the man to be by himself: I will make one like himself as a help to him
19 And from the earth the Lord God made every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and took them to the man to see what names he would give them: and whatever name he gave to any living thing, that was its name.
20 And the man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to every beast of the field; but Adam had no one like himself as a help.
(BBE)
Matthew Henry:
2:18-25 Power over the creatures was given to man, and as a proof of this he named them all. It also shows his insight into the works of God. But though he was lord of the creatures, yet nothing in this world was a help meet for man. From God are all our helpers. If we rest in God, he will work all for good. God caused deep sleep to fall on Adam; while he knows no sin, God will take care that he shall feel no pain. God, as her Father, brought the woman to the man, as his second self, and a help meet for him. That wife, who is of God's making by special grace, and of God's bringing by special providence, is likely to prove a help meet for a man. See what need there is, both of prudence and prayer in the choice of this relation, which is so near and so lasting. That had need to be well done, which is to be done for life. Our first parents needed no clothes for covering against cold or heat, for neither could hurt them: they needed none for ornament. Thus easy, thus happy, was man in his state of innocency. How good was God to him! How many favours did he load him with! How easy were the laws given to him! Yet man, being in honour, understood not his own interest, but soon became as the beasts that perish.
John Wesley:
And every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air God brought to Adam-Either by the ministry of angels, or by a special instinct that he might name them, and so might give a proof of his knowledge, the names he gave them being expressive of their inmost natures.
All that glory and then we end up degenerated to this:
Re 6:8 And I saw a grey horse, and the name of him who was seated on it was Death; and Hell came after him. And there was given to them authority over the fourth part of the earth, to put to destruction by the sword, and by taking away their food, and by death, and by the beasts of the earth.
(BBE)
We get to analyze exactly what that means.
First, that the beasts will be used against other men by the four horsemen. The AC may set up arenas even as Nero the antichrist precursor did in ancient Rome. He may use scent dogs to track down his enemies and use pit bulls to rip into prisoners, or unleash packs of animals to run down escapees.
Chuck Smith while preaching about this passage once mentioned the idea that the bacteria and viruses that cause so much sickness look like beasts when seen under a microscope. And certainly with all the deadly diseases available in various research labs, government and otherwise, any government could release any kind of "beast" to spread death.
Animals fear us. However, hunger can be used to drive them beyond their fear and search out any food, even the humans they once feared. Or through the animals in African savannas. through the huge spiders in Australia, Through crocs and gators. Boas and pythons. Rattlesnakes and black widows, tarantulas, brown recluses. "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my." The polar bears driven from their hunting grounds in the Arctic. Hawks and falcons, Eagles and sparrows attacking in a Hitchcockian movie replay.
Disease can drive animals mad. Imagine a strain of rabies running through the packs who now have no one to vaccinate them against it. Running through animals escaped from untended zoos.
Then death itself could unleash all the animals against humanity. Imagine that cute little poodle in the rich lady's arms deciding to go for her throat. Or the cat lady with ten cats found dead with blood on the claws and teeth of her "babies." Or all those folks betting on dog fights suddenly turned on by the fighters.
All this because our earliest parents lost their hold on the Earth by falling. Not only the
Earth itself turning on us because of our mistreatment, but the animals as well, this time for any kind of treatment. No matter what one thinks of Patterson's ZOO book or miniseries, it may actually have borrowed an plot line from the Bible. The hunter becomes the hunted.
As we consider the ideas of what could and what will happen in the Tribulation a couple things that point even more toward it moving in arise.
Trump's recent recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capitol led to a rage in the Middle East. Islamic countries and Palestinians in their various places of refuge began a protest that will simply seem to cease but go n behind closed door.
Then Trump did this:
SHATI REFUGEE CAMP, Gaza Strip (AP) — Mahmoud al-Qouqa can't imagine life without the three sacks of flour, cooking oil and other staples he receives from the United Nations every three months.
Living with 25 relatives in a crowded home in this teeming Gaza Strip slum, the meager rations provided by UNRWA, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugee families, are the last thing keeping his family afloat in the territory hard hit by years of poverty and conflict. But that could be in danger as the United States, UNRWA's biggest donor, threatens to curtail funding.
"It will be like a disaster and no one can predict what the reaction will be," al-Qouqa said.
Across the Middle East, millions of people who depend on UNRWA are bracing for the worst. The expected cut could also add instability to struggling host countries already coping with spillover from other regional crises.
UNRWA was established in the wake of the 1948 Mideast war surrounding Israel's creation. An estimated 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in the fighting.
In the absence of a solution for these refugees, the U.N. General Assembly has repeatedly renewed UNRWA's mandate, the original refugee camps have turned into concrete slums and more than 5 million refugees and their descendants now rely on the agency for services including education, health care and food. The largest populations are in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan and Lebanon.
Seen by the Palestinians and most of the international community as providing a valuable safety net, UNRWA is viewed far differently by Israel.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses the agency of perpetuating the conflict by helping promote an unrealistic dream that these people have the "right of return" to long-lost properties in what is now Israel.
"UNRWA is part of the problem, not part of the solution," he told foreign journalists last week. Noting that the Palestinians are the only group served by a specific refugee agency, he said UNRWA should be abolished and its responsibilities taken over by the main U.N. refugee agency.
Some in Israel have even tougher criticism, accusing UNRWA of teaching hatred of Israel in its classrooms and tolerating or assisting Hamas militants in Gaza.
Blaming the Palestinians for lack of progress in Mideast peace efforts, President Donald Trump has threatened to cut American assistance to the Palestinians. UNRWA would be the first to be affected.
The U.S. provides about $355 million a year to UNRWA, roughly one-third of its budget.
U.S. officials in Washington said this week the administration is preparing to withhold tens of millions of dollars from the year's first contribution, cutting a planned $125 million installment by half or perhaps entirely. The decision could come as early as Tuesday.
Matthias Schmale, UNRWA's director in Gaza, said Washington has not informed the agency of any changes. However, "we are worried because of the statements ... in the media and the fact that the money hasn't arrived yet," he said.
Schmale dismissed the Israeli criticisms, saying that individuals who spread incitement or aid militants are isolated cases and promptly punished. And he said Netanyahu's criticism should be directed at the U.N. General Assembly, which sets UNRWA's mandate, not the agency itself.
Any cut in U.S. aid could ripple across the region with potentially unintended consequences.
Gaza may be the most challenging of all of UNRWA's operating areas. Two-thirds of Gaza's 2 million people qualify for services, and its role is amplified given the poor state of the economy, which has been hit hard by three wars with Israel and an Israeli-Egyptian blockade since the Hamas militant group seized power over a decade ago. Unemployment is 43 percent and the poverty rate is 38 percent, according to the official Palestinian statistics office.
(Please notice that the Palestinians have brought this on themselves by their constant demand to get Israel back now that it is a very valuable piece of property blessed by God because the Jews are there. Every country that has hosted them has seen misfortune and loss. Those aiding them now are part of predicted battle disaster. If they pursued peace with Israel instead of war, they would see their fortunes restored. Right now, that seems unlikely. W)
(But their pursuit of Israel's destruction has alienated Christian Evangelicals who regard Israel as a brother nation. Trump has been doing his best to please their political desires even as his life has ignored all the legal things they cling to W.)
"Nowhere else are we the biggest service provider for the population of the entire territory," Schmale said. He said UNRWA provides food assistance to 1 million Gazans, calling it "an expression of collective shame for the international community."
With more than 12,500 teachers, nurses and other staff, UNRWA is Gaza's largest non-governmental employer. It is also involved in postwar reconstruction projects.
The dire situation in Gaza is evident inside al-Qouqa's home, which is so cramped the family has made sleeping spaces with wood boards and fabric. Two male family members are unemployed. Two others are Hamas civil servants and get paid only intermittently by the cash-strapped movement.
At 72, al-Qouqa is worried about his grandchildren. "If UNRWA provides them with bread, they can remain patient. But if it was cut, what will they become? They will become thieves, criminals and a burden on society," he said. Many believe Hamas, which administers schools and social services in Gaza, will step in to fill the void.
Jordan, a crucial ally in the U.S.-led battle against Islamic militants, is home to the largest number of Palestinian refugees and their descendants — with nearly 2.2 million people eligible for UNRWA services. This has turned the U.N. agency into a major contributor to social welfare services in the country, which also hosts hundreds of thousands of Syrians displaced by war.
U.S. aid cuts could heighten the threat of instability in Jordan, which is grappling with a worsening economy hurt by the spillover from conflict in neighboring Syria and Iraq. More than one-third of Jordan's young people are without jobs, turning them into potential targets for recruitment by extremists.
(Please recall that refuge from the 1948 accord were given land IN Transjordan. W.)
Most of the Palestinians eligible for UNRWA services in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship, and some argue that this has ended their refugee status. But most maintain that UNRWA services are vital to propping up an important ally.
UNRWA's services are also vital in Lebanon, where Palestinians are prohibited from working in skilled professions and owning property.
Lebanon is the least-welcoming Arab country to Palestinian refugees, because it does not want Palestinians to settle and because it does not want the refugees to upset the country's delicate sectarian balance. Camps in several cities are ringed by concrete barriers and Lebanese security forces use checkpoints to control who enters and leaves. A recent census found 175,000 Palestinian refugees or their descendants living in the country.
The civil war in Syria has made many Palestinians refugees twice over. Some 32,000 Palestinians who were living in Syria fled to Lebanon, according to UNRWA. In Syria, Palestinians enjoyed the right to own property and to work in all professions. They are not entitled to the same in Lebanon.
Balkees Hameed, 33, arrived in 2013 with her husband, two children and in-laws from Damascus, where their apartment was damaged by rocket fire. The family depends on UNRWA assistance to rent a one-bedroom apartment in a ramshackle building in Bourj al-Barajneh, a Beirut camp. Her husband wipes tables at a restaurant outside the camp. Hameed, like all Palestinians, was painfully aware of the rumors coming out of Washington.
"We are already defeated and now they want to oppress us some more?" she asked.
While more than 5 million Syrian refugees worldwide are entitled to assistance from the U.N.'s general refugee relief agency, Palestinians are barred from it under the logic that UNRWA serves them. But UNRWA in Lebanon is chronically underfunded, and the wave of Palestinians arriving from Syria has strained its finances even further.
"What UNRWA provides is not even a quarter of what a Palestinian refugee needs," said Ramy Mansour, 34, who fled to Lebanon from the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus in 2013. "Take everything and return us to our homes. We don't want any assistance or anything, just return us to our country."
(It should be noted that the young man above was never a citizen of Palestine since it ceased to exist long before his birth. His demand seems somewhat hollow when that is considered. W.)
___
Associated Press writers Karin Laub in Amman, Jordan, and Philip Issa in Beirut contributed to this report.
But something else to add: this plays into Putin's plan. He got a President who will alienate Islamic forces everywhere and stoke the fires Putin needs to gather an attack force. He will seem like the good guy to Muslim's everywhere. End times prophecies close in. War in the Middle East gets a shot of gasoline to the fire in the form of a President with n oi sense of anything but himself and his vision of the 1950's TV America.
But reread the verses above. Wrapped in there are a couple little notes on the reality of our life. Death and Hell have personifications. And THEY are given the power to kill a fourth of the Earth's people. A quarter of those living.
Roughly 7.5 billion alive today. Almost 1.9 billion. Just by them.
The ice age. The nuclear events. Seem like just the start. ARE just the start.
Oddly, God doesn't give us a lot of detail about even the battles of the Apocalypse. Well, odd to us. The man He placed in power to do the work of bringing more people to Christ (Yes, that IS what the AC s there for. Even what Trump and Putin are there for.) will be about the business of bringing Death to the world in his battles and behind that Hell will arrive. The Hell will be as so many have pictured it: people seemingly cut off from the mercy of God and subject to all manner of dying, suffering, torture. When the Church has gone, the new Church will emerge, for those who have found the end as a deep view into their souls.
The Bible concerns itself with that list of curses and with modest detail on the battles.
But let's pursue both in the following posts, but first with the Godly concerns of witnesses.
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